• You won’t spend a sleepless night wondering how the turkey lived and died.

Seriously, this Thanksgiving, let’s give thanks for our good fortune, health, and happiness with a life-affirming, cruelty-free feast of plant-based holiday roast, vegetables, fruits, and grains.

Our own dinner will feature a store-bought plant-based holiday roast, mashed potatoes, stuffed squash, candied yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. An internet search on "vegetarian Thanksgiving" is getting us more recipes than we could possibly use.

Rob Codner

Indianapolis

Roncalli is following laws of the Catholic Church

This letter is in regards to Shelley Fitzgerald's intent to sue the Archdiocese of Indianapolis for discrimination.

The Archdiocese is not who Fitzgerald should be fighting against. The pope in Rome makes the decisions which then are followed by all Archdioceses in the United States.

Go to Rome and ask for an audience with the pope. Ask to have meaningful dialogue with Pope Francis. He is a man who will be willing to listen and may convene with the cardinals meaningful discussion which hopefully would lead to change. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis cannot change rules.

While I am sad for Fitzgerald, I believe she needs to move on to another school to guide students, continue to raise awareness for acceptance of LGBT individuals in the world, and take her issues to Rome. Roncalli is not against Fitzgerald for the fun of it. Roncalli is only following the laws of the Catholic Church and the terms of their employee contract with Fitzgerald.

Maria Mabe

Carmel

Inconvenience of Red Line construction brings progress

Short-term pain often leads to long-term gain.

That well-worn truism comes to my mind when I look at Meridian Street outside The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Construction crews have torn up the pavement, forcing traffic to slow down. It can be a headache for motorists, especially during rush hour.

But when I think about the reason the street is in disarray — so the city can get its first bus rapid transit line — I know that the long-term benefits will outweigh the current inconveniences.

This outlook is based on three key points.

First, I am confident our employees and volunteers will appreciate having a new, convenient public transit option for getting to the museum.

Second, while the Red Line construction might temporarily make it challenging for some of our guests to get to the museum right now, I am confident that once it is completed, many guests will find it easier than ever to get to us especially because there will be a station right outside the museum. Most notably, it will help conventioneers and others who stay in downtown hotels to get to our front door. Currently, there is no quick and direct way to get from downtown to the museum.

That last point is particularly resonant for me. As one of the 25 most-visited museums in North America, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is a peer to museums located in large cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver or New York. In those cities, mass transit is a part of the landscape, and visitors expect to have easy access to museums and other top amenities via transit. With the Red Line, I believe Indianapolis will be able to meet those expectations.

Further, as an institution committed to being accessible to everyone — that’s why, for example, we participate in the Access Pass program, which offers qualifying families reduced-cost admissions to local museums — we are excited about improved accessibility that will make our programs and offerings available to even more people.

We are deeply committed to our surrounding neighbors and discovering ways to provide them with more options and an improved quality of life. Like our Mid-North Area neighbor Ivy Tech, The Children’s Museum has for years invested in infrastructure supportive of public transportation. These efforts have been aided by a collaborative relationship with IndyGo.

That relationship will continue to bear fruit, as IndyGo works to make the museum accessible to Red Line riders. In addition to creating an attractive station just outside our walls, they are helping to improve the sidewalks connecting the station to our entrance.

In closing, I must note that very few of our members — some of whom visit us multiple times a month — have complained about the construction, and our employees certainly have rolled with the challenges.

Maybe that’s because we just completed our own major construction project — the 7.5-acre Riley Children’s Health Sport Legends Experience. Or, maybe it’s because our members and our employees see the construction the same way I do: as short-term pain with long-term gain. After all, isn’t that usually the way it is with progress

Jeffrey Patchen

President and CEO, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

Open borders benefit Democrats at the polls

I wonder if reader Ann Stack and those who are so quick to criticize the "evils" of gerrymandering in a recent article, "Republican state legislatures that draw districts to strongly favor their own political party," have considered the possibility that the open-borders immigration policies backed by Democrats create the opposite kind of political imbalance. We're seeing the voting results of massive immigration already, as southwestern states such as Texas and Arizona see their formerly safe Republican majorities begin to crumble as voting rolls welcome more and more Democratic-leaning Hispanics. As a political strategy, open borders is far more beneficial to Democrats than gerrymandering is to Republicans.

Larry Shores

Fishers

Noblesville middle school shooter suffers brain disorder

As a neuroscientist and the parent of two adult children with brain-based disorders who became ill as teens, I have followed the tragic story of the 13-year-old Noblesville middle school shooter. I have prayed and wept for the innocent victims, and I also have prayed and wept for this teen and his family.

I cannot criticize the judge who made the decision. Like all of us who are adversely placed in his situation of having to act when we come face-to-face with the reality of such an illness, we need to be educated. He failed to make the most appropriate decision because our society continues to support the idea that these brain illnesses are behavioral. All illnesses are behavioral.

With heart, cancer, urinary tract, orthopedic and many other disorders, we call those behaviors symptoms. For years I have taught that there is nothing more behavioral than a heart attack. If this teen had a cardiac-related event that caused serious injury or even death to others, he would have been treated rather than faced criminal charges. We know that early detection and early intervention in other illnesses has not only promoted positive outcomes but has also reduced the negative outcomes of fear and stigma. This young man and his parents are victims of a society that criminalizes these brain disorders because of fear and stigma.

The answer is education. NAMI Indiana has done an excellent job in providing education for many involved in the criminal justice system, including judges. Mental Health America in Indiana has been at the forefront of promoting important legislation. I pray that the judge in this young man's case and others who are involved in his recovery will become educated on these brain illnesses.

Joan Lafuze

Greenwood

Hoosiers lose a courageous defender in Delph's defeat

I was sad to see Mike Delph lose his seat in the Indiana Senate. Hoosiers have lost a courageous defender of fiscal restraint and Christian values. Delph is also a strong advocate for the weakest and most defenseless among us — unborn babies.

Delph consistently put principle over party, standing up to the Republican establishment when they abandoned the conservative base. I especially appreciated Delph's stand against hate crimes legislation. Hate crimes are already illegal, and we should be harshly punishing all violent criminals no matter the motivation for their crimes.

I am sure the Republican establishment is glad to see a Democrat take Delph's seat, but the Republican Party's rank and file are not happy with this.

Thank you, Mike Delph, for all of your hard work over the years defending conservative principles and standing up to the Republican establishment on our behalf.